


(Discontinued Version!) How To Build A Business Partner

by pinkconkonut



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Architechs, Gen, Hermitcraft season 6, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Death, Paranoia, Permadeath, Respawn Mechanics, hermitcraft season 7
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24612193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkconkonut/pseuds/pinkconkonut
Summary: PLEASE READ: This version of "How To Build A Business Partner" has been discontinued. Fear not, though, as the story is being rewritten! If you like this story and want to read more, please keep a lookout for the updated version!It's pretty common knowledge by this point that Iskall has a robotic arm, and possibly eye, but what happens when you consider that one of his friends has built 2.5 robotic versions of himself, and the other is a master of redstone technology?*Tagged as Majour Character Death because a main character does die, but it happens just before the actual story begins.
Comments: 37
Kudos: 219





	1. Chapter 1

“...I am definitely not a good builder! Have you seen any of my past bases? They’re all just a bunch of circles for goodness sake!” Mumbo exclaimed to his shorter friend. Grian just chuckled.

“Mumbo, have you ever seen any of my attempts at redstone? Everything I build ends up wanting to kill me!” They both burst out laughing, remembering how Grian had to actually lock both NPC Grian and Robot Grian in his closet for trying to kill him. “Plus,” he added. “Circles are quite hard to build!”

“Yeah, alright. That’s fair. I’ve really gotta teach you how to do redstone some time soon, though.” Mumbo replied, just coming down from laughing at both his and Grian’s complementary skillset, or rather, lack thereof. “Seriously though, why do you keep making robot versions of yourself if you know they’re just going to rebel?”

Grian laughed, shrugging. “I think if I’d known they were gonna do that, I probably wouldn’t have built any in the first place!”

The two had been walking along the shore of one of the islands Mumbo was planning to use for his base, simply talking and joking with each other. The sun had only just begun to set on the water in the distance, turning the evening sky and its water-y reflection brilliant shades of pink and orange. It was quite the beautiful sight.

Grian sighed, having enjoyed the past couple of hours spent with his mustached friend. He’d brought up possibly forming a business partnership with him, since they both had a skill the other didn’t. They hadn’t yet decided on the name they would go by, though. They’d discussed a dictionary worth of possible names, but decided to sleep on it and decide on it another day. For now though, Grian thought it was probably best to go back to his shipwreck-in-a-bottle in order  
to actually sleep on it.

“It’s been fun hanging out with you, but I think I’m gonna head back to my base and sleep before the phantoms start coming after me.” Grian gave a little laugh, only half joking. “I haven’t got any good armour just yet.” He joked.

“Alright then. See ya!” Mumbo said, waving at Grian as he headed off in his little wooden boat. After watching his friend row off into the distance, he thought taking one more lap around the island wouldn’t hurt, just to do a bit more planning for his base.

As Mumbo was finishing up his final lap and preparing to go to sleep, he noticed something lying on the shoreline, just out the corner of his eye. Normally he would’ve just ignored it and moved on, but whatever it was looked suspiciously human. He figured he should probably check it out, in case it was a person who may be in need of help.

Mumbo slowly walked closer to the unidentified object on his beach, but upon closer inspection, even in the gradually decreasing light, he could see that it was, in fact, a person. He got closer, preparing his stone sword, just in case it was a drowned or zombie that had washed up. They didn’t appear to be wearing the usual attire of said hostile mobs, so that was a plus, but he still kept his sword at the ready, just in case.

When he finally got close enough to make out more details, he gasped. ‘Oh no,’ he thought, getting his communicator out to message Xisuma, or Grian, or anyone who might be awake and able to help. He hoped that at least one of the other hermits might still be awake to see his message. He decided to send the message to everyone, along with his coordinates, before putting away his communicator to start dragging the person up onto the grass.

Mumbo had only managed to drag the body a couple feet away from the shore before he got a notification on his communicator, and definitely not because he was too weak to drag him more than just three feet. It was Grian.

<Grian: I’ll be right there!>

He was glad that it was Grian who’d responded first, considering his base was the closest to his current location. Not too long after he’d replied to Mumbo’s message, he could be seen in the distance, rowing as hard as he could. It didn’t take too much time for him to reach the shore and run over to where Mumbo was sitting next to the unconscious, or possibly dead, body.

“Who is that, and what the heck happened to him?” Grian asked, concern and confusion evident in his voice. Mumbo had almost forgotten that Grian was still quite new, and therefore wouldn’t automatically recognise the man laying limp in the grass.

“It’s Iskall, and I wish I knew what happened to him! I was just walking around some more when he washed up on the shore!” Mumbo said, worried that his friend might be dead.

“Well did you check to see if he’s still alive before messaging anyone?” Mumbo paused. What an absolute spoon! How could he forget to check for breathing or a pulse?!

“I, uhh-” Grian cut him off, already knowing what he was about to say. He moved in and pressed two fingers to Iskall’s neck, just below where his ear connected to it. Nothing. He leaned his own ear in close to his face, just to see if he might be breathing, although given the previous results, he wasn’t really expecting any good results. Again, nothing.

“I’m no doctor, but I think he might be…” He paused. “Uh, well, you know...” Grian said, avoiding the word ‘dead’ upon seeing the look on his friend’s face. Even though he had pretty much no idea who Iskall was, he still felt Mumbo’s sorrow.

“I don’t want to ruin the moment, but shouldn’t he have respawned by now? Should we call Xisuma over here?” Grian asked. Had there been a glitch in the matrix? There was no way permadeath should’ve been possible, unless something had gone wrong upon entering this new world.

Mumbo nodded, frantically retrieving his communicator from his pocket to message the admin. It didn’t take long for Xisuma to arrive, given that Mumbo had sent out an emergency message to everyone with his coordinates attached only ten minutes earlier.

Upon arrival, Xisuma had to stop himself from gasping at the sight of one of his friends lying dead in the grass as he didn’t want to worry the other two more. While Mumbo and Grian told him about what happened, he got to work researching what might’ve gone wrong and trying to find the best solution to the problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to say a big thank you to @/shadeswiftdraws on tumblr for helping me out! Make sure to check 'em out!


	2. Chapter 2

Iskall woke up in his “Inbetween Bases Base,” or I.B.B.B. as he liked to call it. He didn’t usually have dreams, especially not ones that he could remember, but the one he’d had last night was… strange, to say the least. It was so vivid, it almost felt more like a memory than a dream. He decided it best to just shove it off for now in favour of getting more work done on the branches of his base, seeing as he’d already put off working on it for over a week now. He got up, grabbing his elytra, a couple rockets, and five shulker boxes full of oak logs, courtesy of Bigger Logs Inc.

The swedish man had a lot of work cut out for him, but he very much enjoyed the pure pride he felt when taking a step back to see how much progress he’d made after a hard day’s work.

After what felt like days, but was really only about ten hours, Iskall had finally finished one more mega-branch, complete with smaller branches coming off of it and leaves on the ends of each and every one of them. He flew off and landed on the tallest jungle tree far enough away from his base so that he could see how his base looked with his new addition. He practically had to stand on top of Grian’s mansion just to get the full view of it. The man sighed, feeling both excited to have finally made some more progress on this mega-build and completely exhausted from the amount of work it took. The view was stunning, especially with the sun setting just behind his Omega Tree.

“Is it really night already? I guess time goes by quicker when I’m not so focused on it.” He laughed, figuring he should probably head back into his base to sleep. Iskall took one more look at his work before flying off and into his base.

Having finally laid down for the first time all day, Iskall now had the time to think about things that didn’t involve wood or leaves or anything of the sort. Now that he had time to think, his mind wandered back to his dream from the previous night. He wondered what it meant, if anything, but not for long as he soon found himself incapable of anything except sleep.

***

“Mumbo, do you really think this is such a good idea? I mean, I get why you want my help, but, given my history, I’m not so sure we should go through with it.” He definitely wanted to help, since he had some knowledge of how to build robots, but was afraid that things might turn sour, just as they had in the past.

“I know, but we have to! I don’t really fancy having dead friends.” Mumbo said, albeit a bit harsh, and grabbed some more redstone dust from a nearby chest. He thought about how harsh that last bit might’ve sounded, but it only helped get his point across. “I’m hoping that, since I’m here to help, he’ll turn out different.” He trailed off on that last word, really, really hoping this time would be different, before focusing his attention back to the task at hand.

Xisuma had told them that there may have been a slight problem with the mechanics of this new world. It didn’t take him too long to find out why Iskall hadn’t been able to respawn upon death and fix the issue before any of the other hermits had the chance to die. Losing one was definitely way more than enough. Although he was able to locate the problem and solve it before anything could escalate, he’d found that he was unable to bring life back to the one who’d already died. Mumbo, however, wouldn’t have it that way. He knew there had to be some way to bring his friend back. 

“Mumbo, I…” Xisuma started, trying to put what he was about to say in the gentlest way possible. Although he’d known the mustached man for quite a long time, and knew that he generally wasn’t one to overreact, but it was the man’s closest friend that had died. “I tried my best to fix his respawn, but nothing I’ve done so far has worked. I can keep trying to find possible solutions, but I’m afraid he might be too far gone by the time I actually work it out.” That may not have been the gentlest way he could’ve put it, but it was certainly better than just outright lying in order not to hurt his friend’s feelings.

Mumbo’s breathing started to speed up and his thoughts ran a mile a minute. “What do you mean you can’t get Iskall to respawn?! You’re the admin for goodness sake! Do something! Anything!” He hadn’t meant to yell at X, but his emotions we’re too far gone to be kept under control. One or two tears may have fallen from his ducts in the process, but neither Grian nor Xisuma had said anything about it, so neither would he.

Despite Mumbo’s yelling, Xisuma somehow remained calm. He put a soothing hand on his friend’s shoulder. Mumbo wanted to shrug it away at first, still mad at him for not being able to do much about their dead friend, but at the same time, he wanted to lean into the comforting touch. A small part of him kind of wanted to hug the admin to help himself cool down some more. “I’m not going to tell you to calm down; you have every right to feel the way you’re feeling. I’ll try my best to figure out some way to bring him back, but for now, I think you should get some rest. Both of you. We’ll all come back to this tomorrow with clear minds.” Grian nodded in agreement. 

“You’re right.” Mumbo sighed, having finally regained himself. His hands were still a bit shaky, but at least he had his emotions in check. He did end up getting that comfort hug in the end, which only helped calm him down even more. After helping to get Iskall’s body to a cool place for safe keeping, they all retreated back to their own bases to get that well deserved rest.

As Mumbo sat in bed, trying his absolute hardest to sleep, which was quite hard given that he’d watched his best friend’s dead body wash up on his beach only two hours earlier, he tried to come up with ways to get his friend back. It didn’t take long for him to come up with something of a plan. He recalled his earlier conversations with Grian about his terrible redstone skills and building robots that, somehow, became sentient. He thought that, maybe, with the help of his friend, he may be able to recreate Iskall, and all of his memories. Scratch that. He knew that with Grian’s help, they could bring back Iskall, albeit more robotic than before.

Grian had been tasked with building the outer shell, and keeping the redstoner in check, while Mumbo worked on all the inner wirings. The thought of rebuilding their friend had sounded a whole lot simpler than the reality of it. Mumbo was having trouble figuring out how to transfer the memories from Iskall’s old body to his new one and kept having redstone blow up in his face. More than a few times, he got so frustrated with it that he’d had to go fight some blazes in the Nether in order to take out his anger, but always came back no more than ten minutes later, worried that if he’d spent too long away from this project that he’d lose his friend forever.

It wasn’t only Mumbo that bore frustrations, though. While Grian had built robots in the past, they were mirror images of himself, and not to mention it had been years since he’d built them. He was more used to building houses and traps for his friends. Luckily for him, though, he was only in charge of the exo-skeleton, just pure aesthetics. Both hermits were panicking over whether or not their plan would work, but more than that, they were determined to make it work.

***

Once again, Iskall had awoken, remembering an almost memory-like dream. He considered telling someone, most likely Mumbo or Grian, about his past couple of dreams, but figured it best not to as they were just that.

Having done so much work on his base yesterday, Iskall decided that he would engage in some pranks on his fellow hermits. Maybe he could finally get Mumbo back for the “charrot” he built in front of his base. The only question was: what in the world could he do to get him back? He considered asking him over to the Hermit Challenges area and challenging him to mine two thousand diamonds like he had done recently. Or maybe he could build some kind of Bumbo in his base. Then it hit him. Iskall grabbed all of the necessary materials and took off toward Mumbo’s massive base.

The swede had spent the past two-and-a-half hours building twelve tall, green statues with crooked eyes, teeth, and mustaches. He hoped the joke would get across. After taking a step back to admire his handiwork, Iskall placed a sign in front of the one he figured Mumbo might see first.

“Twelve Bumboo,” Iskall read the sign aloud, clutching at his chest as he was unable to control his laughter over the clever play on words. “Oh, he is going to love this!” And with that, he took off in the direction of his base. He couldn’t wait to see Mumbo’s reaction.


	3. Chapter 3

“Ah! Yes! Finally!” Iskall exclaimed to no one in particular. He’d been waiting for Ren to deliver more oak logs to him so he could get some more work done on his base and that delivery finally came after about a week or so. He swapped over as many of the fresh logs as he could over to the few spare shulker boxes he had on him before flying all the way up to the top of his base to continue his work.

The bearded man placed log after log, talking to himself all the while to keep himself from getting bored. He found himself thinking more about his recent dreams and how familiar they felt. It really was strange how memory-like they were. It was almost as if he could feel himself in that little stone room, hearing the voices of Mumbo and Grian, both sounding worried out of their minds and like they hadn’t slept in over a week, though Grian slightly more so. The poor blonde man had to keep his taller friend from going insane over trying to figure out how to bring a dead human back to the world of the living.

“Alright, alright. So… attempt number… uh… Grian, what number are we on now?” Mumbo turned to face the man in question.

Grian blinked slowly at him, clearly exhausted. “I don’t even know anymore. Let’s call it… twenty four? Yeah, that sounds about right.” He replied. “But remember, Mumbo,” he started, voice much more soft and calm sounding than before. “If it doesn’t work this time, then we’re going to sleep on it and figure it out tomorrow. We won’t be able to do anything to help him if we die of exhaustion.” Although Grian was also concerned about bringing Iskall back to life, he was, admittedly, slightly more worried about keeping his living friend alive.

“Okay, right. Attempt number twenty four it is then.” Mumbo turned back to facing the control panel. “Twenty fourth time’s a charm…” He said, really hoping that this time would work. Not that he hadn’t had any hope before, just that he was getting tired and he knew Grian was too. He pressed buttons and flicked levers left and right. The two men watched as the metallic body atop the cold, stone table began to convulse. So far, so good.

Iskall shook his head. He’d been so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t even realise he’d run out of oak logs. He sat down on the top of his Omega Tree, hanging his legs over the edge. Instead of having those oddly vivid dreams at night, now he was having them during the day as well; he didn’t like it one bit.

‘Maybe I should go to Grian and Mumbo about it.’ He thought to himself. They were his best friends and the dreams did seem to focus on them. ‘Plus,’ he thought. ‘I don’t want to end up drifting away from them just because of some stupid dreams.’ Iskall looked out over the horizon toward Mumbo’s base, only just then noticing how dark the sky had become. He figured it best to get some rest for now and confront them about it tomorrow.

Iskall thought he’d get some rest before confronting his friends about his oddly vivid dreams, but instead he found himself lying wide awake in his bed, only able to think about his recent dreams. He briefly considered just asking to meet up immediately, figuring the two night owls were probably awake and working on their bases, but decided against it just in case they were actually sleeping for once. Iskall groaned. This night was going to be long and unforgiving.

Since sleeping apparently wasn’t an option Iskall thought now might be a good time to touch up the paint job on his right arm. Although it was nighttime, meaning there were most likely mobs everywhere, he decided to walk back to his hobbit hole to retrieve his dyes. Maybe the fighting along with the long walk might help tire him out.

The journey wasn’t nearly as long as he’d remembered, even factoring in all the time it took for him to knock out all the mobs on the way there, but he’d finally made it. The man had to admit, he kind of missed living in the vertical hobbit hole.

Once inside, Iskall quickly made his way down to his old storage system to look for his dyes. Why he didn’t bring them with him when he’d moved into his I.B.B.B., he had no clue. What he did know, however, is exactly where he’d kept them, so at least there was that. After grabbing out the necessary materials, he pulled off his vest and hoodie, revealing his bare torso. He shivered a bit in the cool, damp air of his old base.

“I guess it’s a good thing I couldn’t sleep, then,” Iskall started, seemingly speaking to the mechanical arm as if it could respond. “You really need a touch-up.” He began to smear the dyes over the prosthetic limb, trying to think of how in the world that much paint could’ve chipped off after less than three months before remembering all the PVP he got involved in during the Head Games and, more recently, Tag 2: Electric Boogaloo. He laughed, recalling how Grian managed to get him with the same trap as in the previous world.

“Aaaaand… done!” The swede exclaimed, holding out his arm to admire his new paint job. He decided to paint the nails this time around. A nice, bright shade of green to match his hoodie. Of course he’d painted the nails on his other hand as well. He looked over to the golden clock that hung on the stone wall. ‘Daytime already?’ At least he didn’t have to worry about having another one of those weird dreams.

Finally, the time had come for Iskall to talk to his friends about what’d been happening lately. He hoped they’d be available sometime really soon so he wouldn’t have to think about it for too much longer.

<iskall85: Hey MJ and Grian, can I talk to you if you have a sec?>

<MumboJumbo: We’re just finishing up a mayoral meeting, if you want to meet us at Grumbot>

Perfect. He figured he’d drop the dyes off at his new base, then head out towards the  
shopping district to meet with the other Architechs.

For some odd reason, the trip had felt like it took way more time than usual, though he supposed it could’ve been that he was anxious of what to say to the others. How would they react? Would they think it was weird? Would they brush it off as just a silly little dream and send him off? All of those thoughts worried him, even if he did know for a fact that they would always be there for him and always do their best to help him out. Same for every other hermit.

“...I cannot believe he called us his dads! I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility yet!”

“Grian, I don’t think you’re ready for any kind of responsibility yet.”

Iskall didn’t even want to know what Grian was talking about when he landed on the ocean platform. Just as he’d arrived at the Grumbot, the sun had begun to set on the horizon. He didn’t realise that he’d spent pretty much the whole day just trying to get to the shopping district. Why he didn’t just take the Nether, he wasn’t quite sure.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget how beautiful the sunset looks behind him.” Grian said, jokingly teary eyed. “Anyway, Iskall, what was it that you wanted to talk about?” He asked, but the man in question couldn’t focus on a word he’d said. He stood, staring up at the giant robot. His brain felt fuzzy, like there was static buzzing about up there. He felt like there was some mystical force drawing him closer to the oversized machine. He didn’t even notice that he’d walked right up to it and practically hugged it.

“Iskall, what on earth are you doing, mate?” Mumbo asked, having to stop himself from laughing at the swedish man.

“Wh-” Iskall began, only just then realising how close he’d gotten to Grumbot. His face heated up and he laughed a little, purely out of embarrassment. “I… don’t know.” He answered, surprisingly honestly. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you guys about the dreams I’ve had lately.”

“Ooh, are they about new ideas for new business ventures?” Grian’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“I wish, man.” Iskall admitted. If only they had been about new projects, then he wouldn’t have lost any sleep over it. Grian sighed, disappointed, but more interested in what the man was actually wanting to talk about.

“Well what were they about, then?” The tallest of the three asked with a hint of concern.

“They’re really weird, and the next one always takes place right after the last one. All three of us were there, but I was dead? And you guys were trying to build a robot? I think?” Although his dreams were in third person, some bits were a tad fuzzier than others, so he couldn’t tell exactly what the robot looked like or anything like that. “I really have no idea what was happening, but I do know that Mumbo cried and hugged Xisuma.” Iskall snickered at that last bit. Grian joined him.

“I- well, could you blame me? You died!” Mumbo exclaimed.

“I didn’t know you two were that close, Mumby.” Grian joked, earning himself a red-faced Mumbo and a laughing Iskall.

After calming down, Iskall continued with his explanation. “I think there was something about respawn being broken, though? So yeah, you should have been crying.” He said, definitely not in a narcissistic way whatsoever.

“Do you think maybe you’re dreaming about when we fixed your arm?” Grian asked after he, too, had finished with his fit of laughter. “It does sound a lot like it, aside from the actually dying bit, because that never happened, obviously. You’re still here to prove it!”

“Exactly!” Mumbo agreed with the shorter hermit. “You probably don’t remember much of it, but at the beginning of last season, you managed to lose your arm, but we fixed you up with a little help from X.” What they were saying did sound almost exactly like what his dreams had shown, but it was just slightly off.

“I mean, I guess so, but it was different. In the dream, I straight up died, dude! Like instead of just this robot arm, I guess you were trying to rebuild me entirely? I’m still not really sure.” The look on the faces of the other two depicted something Iskall couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was kind of like worry, but also like they had something to hide. “What’s with the faces?” He asked, hoping to coax out whatever they might be hiding.

“Well sorry I can’t help having a face!” Grian joked. “But maybe it’s just your deepest, darkest fears coming to bite you in the butt while you sleep!” He offered, emphasizing the deepest and darkest parts.

“Maybe Grian’s right, Iskall. Are you afraid you’re more robot than man? I mean, obviously you’re not, you’ve only got the one eye and the arm, which, if I’m doing my maths right, is definitely less than fifty percent!” Iskall really did want to appreciate the lightheartedness of their jokes, but it felt like they were just trying to distract him from something. Either way, they won. He decided to take the easy route and just try to see it their way.

“I never really worried about that, but I guess you’re right.” He’d really been hoping for a better explanation than that, but it was the best he’d probably get out of them. The swede looked up to the night sky, sighing. “I guess we should probably head back to our bases before phantoms start showing up.”

“Yeah, definitely. Especially since Grian and I have stayed up the past three days working on… campaign stuff.” That last part sounded really suspicious, but Iskall didn’t have it in him to worry about that right now. “If you have any more dreams like those, we’ll be happy to listen to you about them, though.” Mumbo reassured.

Iskall gave a little goodbye wave before taking off, this time actually heading for the portal instead of trying to fly an absolutely ridiculous distance again. Tonight was probably going to be another long night, especially when he thought about the looks on his friend’s faces after he told them about his concerns.

***

“Iskall? Iskall can you hear me?” He distantly heard a voice. He wanted to say he recognised it, but couldn’t say for sure. His eyes slowly began to open, but closed harder upon coming in contact with the blinding white light of the sun. So he was outside. Suddenly, he could feel something grainy beneath him. Sand? Sand.

“Wh-” He began, but found talking to be more on the difficult side at the moment.

“Hey, buddy. It’s me, Mumbo. Glad you’re finally awake!” Mumbo. Yeah, that’s who it was. He remembered now. Tall, black hair, dashing mustache, fancy suit covered in redstone dust. His best friend. “You took quite a beating there, man. Xisuma had to come check it out. But you’re all fixed now, so that’s good!” Fixed? Why would he use a word like “fixed” on a human? Wasn’t it usually used for non-human things and animals? He supposed he couldn’t say much, as he still couldn’t quite call himself up-to-date with english slang.

There was another person next to Mumbo, also looking down at him. He definitely didn’t recognise this one. He had blonde hair and wore a red sweater that looked just a bit too big for him. ‘Maybe he’s Mumbo’s friend?’ He wondered. The stranger looked from Mumbo, then back to Iskall, then nudged his arm, as if to say something. He noticed Mumbo’s eyes follow the direction of the other’s before he gasped.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I should probably mention this to you. So something broke when we came to this world, then you took a nasty beating, so we had to, uh, replace your arm and your eye.” The tall man spoke so quickly, Iskall’s barely-awake brain could barely understand any of it. He opted to just follow his gaze when he saw-

“Wait wait! Don’t freak out! It’s okay!” The sweatered hermit tried to calm him. It did little to help as the shock from seeing a metallic arm in place of a flesh one was the only thing going through his mind. “Like Mumbo said, you got beat up pretty bad, but you’re all better now! And you shouldn’t even be able to feel any of the pain from it!” The man added. He had a point. There was no pain.

Mumbo helped Iskall to stand up, then pulled him into a hug. At first, Iskall was a bit shocked by the gesture, but soon relaxed and hugged back. He supposed he might’ve had his friend worried for a good minute there, so it made sense that he might want to comfort him. The blonde man was just standing off to the side, watching, before Mumbo pulled him into the hug as well. He sighed before eventually hugging back. This was an unexpected, but certainly not unpleasant, way to wake up.


	4. Chapter 4

By this point, Iskall didn’t even bother trying to figure out what his dreams meant. It was basically the “norm” for him to wake up confused and concerned. Really all they were doing now was making him more and more angry, which was very apparent to the other hermits. They’d see him going around the shopping district and blowing up at every minor inconvenience; this wasn’t like the Iskall they’d come to know and love. 

That wasn’t the weirdest thing that’d happened lately with Iskall, though. Sometimes one of the hermits would catch a glimpse of him over by Mumbo and Grian’s mayoral campaign robot. It would only be for a few seconds before he, somehow, vanished. The first time he did this, nobody thought anything of it. It’d happened during the day and they’d all assumed he was trying to coax his friends’ plans out of it. Eventually they started seeing him there at night after they knew Iskall had already gone to sleep. It was odd, to say the least, but everyone decided to just brush it off.

Stress had been the first person to ask him about his recent activities. “Hey Iskall!” She called to him from his Nether portal. Luckily, Iskall had been in the centre of his base, grabbing a few diamond blocks in order to buy more wood from Ren.

“Oh! Hey, gorgeous!” He replied, seeming happier than he’d been the past couple of weeks. “Do you need something?”

“Well, originally I came here to give you this,” she handed him a plain white shirt with a fuschia heart on it then continued. “But I also wanted to see if you were alright.” Her face showed nothing but genuine concern for her campaign manager and friend. Iskall let out a bit of a groan, but disguised it as a sigh, so as not to further concern the woman.

“Oh wow! This shirt is absolutely gorgeous! Even if the heart is a little off centre...” He put the shirt on anyway and modeled it for Stress. He did genuinely like the shirt, but he figured it’d also be a good way to distract her from questioning him further. “But anyway, there’s nothing to worry about, I’m just getting a little impatient with Ren’s log deliveries is all.” He waved his hand in the air, as if trying to visually represent him brushing off the issue.

Stress could feel the lies in his words. Although she didn’t deny that he was tired of waiting for more logs to be delivered, seeing as he had a massive tree to finish building. She gave him a stern look, trying to make him say what he was actually feeling, but the man just stood there, looking like he didn’t know why she was looking at him like that.

“Look, I’m not here to bother you or anything, I just wanted to let you know that we’re all here for you, Iskall. If there is something bothering you, we’re all more than willing to listen.” Iskall’s expression softened a bit upon hearing her words.

“Thanks,” he said, dropping the diamonds to give her a hug. “Trust me, I would definitely tell you guys if something was wrong.” Stress hugged him back, trusting that he was telling the truth. If only she could’ve known what what going on inside Iskall’s head in that very moment.

***

“I told you he wasn’t ready yet! Why’d you go and wake him up, you spoon?!” Grian was less mad at Mumbo and more concerned about how the newly built Iskall felt.

“I know, I know. I just couldn’t stand him being dead any longer! I don’t know if you know how that feels, but, mate, I’ll tell you, it does not feel good!” 

“Yeah, but I thought the plan was to make sure he didn’t think anything happened to him! I thought we wanted to keep him thinking he was still completely human!”

“Well at least he thinks he’s mostly human, though!” Mumbo tried to reason, even if only to justify his hasty actions. Grian groaned.

“I guess, but we’d both better hope he never finds out he’s not because, knowing my past, it’s not going to end well. At all.” He really didn’t feel like having his life threatened by another robot of his.

Mumbo put his hand on Grian’s shoulder comfortingly. “He won’t. I’ll make sure of it.” He smiled. The shorter man wasn’t sure that he completely trusted the other to do that job very well, given what he’d just done only four hours earlier, but it was nice to think otherwise.

Grian put his hand on top of Mumbo’s, smiling. “Okay, but just in case, I’ll also make sure of it.” They both shared a little laugh before looking over to the group surrounding Iskall on the other side of the tiny island. He seemed happy. Everybody gawked at his brand new body parts. Doc especially, seeing as he now wasn’t the only “cyborg” in their little world.

***

“...all? Hey Iskall?” A familiar voice rang through his ears. He groaned, obviously annoyed with whoever it was. He looked up to find his tall, black-haired friend. 

“Oh,” his voice was a bit raspy, whether it be because of his annoyance or because he’d forgotten to drink anything was beyond him. “Hey Mumbo.”

“Are you alright, mate? You don’t seem like yourself lately.” The man frowned. Iskall really wanted to appreciate his friends’ concerns, but that was just about the most difficult task at the moment with those awful dreams, seemingly revealing what his friends were hiding.

“I’m fine. What do you need?” The longer he thought about his recent dreams and daydreams, the angrier he got with the mustached man. If they were true, then how could he just hide something that important from him and act like nothing happened? How could any of his supposed friends do that to him? 

Mumbo could almost see the fumes coming off the swedish man. He backed up slightly, but not so far that he couldn’t place a hand on his back to rub soothing circles into it. Iskall leaned into the touch slightly, which made Mumbo a little less tense. “Well I came over here to get you back for the “twelve bumboo” but I noticed you were just sitting on the ground, staring at nothing, so I wanted to see if you were alright.”

“Why does everyone keep doing that lately?” Iskall groaned to himself, although he was sure Mumbo could hear it, then sighed. Mumbo was his best friend, and dreams were just dreams, right? “Mumbo, if I tell you something, do you promise you won’t laugh?” He asked, finally soft again.

“Anytime, mate! I can’t say for sure I won’t laugh, but you can punch me if I do.” Iskall gave a little chuckle and Mumbo smiled, happy to see a smile on his best friend’s face once again.

“I…” The swede started, but paused to figure out how exactly he wanted to phrase what he wanted to say. Mumbo just smiled patiently at him. “You remember those dreams I told you and Grian about?” At Mumbo’s nod, he continued. “I tried to not think about them, but I keep having them, even when I’m not even asleep!” Mumbo hummed. “I just- I feel like they’re making me mad at everybody…”

“I have noticed you’ve been a bit more irritable lately.” Iskall shot him a quick glare, then sighed.

“They make me feel like everybody’s hiding something from me. Like, I know they’re just dreams, but something in me is trying to tell me otherwise...”

“Hmm… I know you told me and Grian about them before, but do you want to talk about the more recent ones?”

“Actually, yeah.”

“Alright.” Mumbo said, shifting around so he was sitting on the ground in front of Iskall. “I’m just going to get comfy real quick.” He then gave the other a nod, showing that he was ready to continue listening.

Iskall took a deep breath in. “I think they follow the same story as the other ones, but this time I’m not even really in the dreams. It’s mostly just you and Gri, but it really, really feels more like a memory. Almost like it actually happened.” Mumbo nodded and hummed. “Basically you guys built me as a robot, but were keeping it a secret and tried to make me believe I just had the arm and the eye.” He looked down to the mentioned arm as he spoke.

“Oh man. I’m really sorry you feel like that. Trust me, though, if I had something that big to hide, then it wouldn’t have even had the chance to be a secret! You know how bad I am about spilling the beans.” He nudged the other and laughed at his own inability to hide anything. Iskall looked up from his arm to the man in front of him. He laughed along, but felt as though Mumbo’s was less genuine than his own. Like it was forced out of nervousness. He brushed it off in favour of enjoying the sweet little moment.

“Yeah, you are pretty bad at hiding stuff, dude. You should probably work on that if you want to be mayor.” They both burst out in genuine laughter. “Thanks for listening, bro.” Iskall said after they finished laughing, giving the man a gentle punch to the shoulder. 

“Yeah, anytime, dude.” Mumbo smiled, rubbing his hand over where Iskall had punched him, even though there hadn’t been nearly enough force for it to hurt. “I’m sure Grian would be down to listen to you as well. Or any of the hermits really.” The bearded man’s expression darkened just the slightest bit at the mention of Grian.

“Thanks.” He replied, trying his best to hide his sudden anger at the mention of his friend.

***

It had been hours since his talk with Mumbo, yet Iskall still couldn’t shake his anger towards Grian. He had been a bit irritable to everyone lately, but it was all by chance. Grian was the first one who wasn’t in his immediate vicinity to spark this kind of emotion in him.

He didn’t hate the guy; they were best friends! How could someone hate their best friend? He thought that maybe it was related to his recent dreams, but then that wouldn’t make sense, would it? He had been face to face with Mumbo earlier and didn’t feel nearly as agitated.

That’s when he heard it. A strange sound in his ear. He wanted to say it sounded like someone talking to him in his ear, like a subconscious or something along those lines, but it couldn’t be that. The “voice” was way too mechanical and clunky sounding. It was more like a long beep that was pausing every now and then, like syllables. 

Iskall turned around to check the clock on his wall. Perhaps he was just extremely tired and was just imagining things. Maybe some rest would help. Or maybe not, seeing how his dreams have made him feel lately. Whatever. Even if he did have another bad dream, at least he’d be well rested.


	5. Chapter 5

“Hey.” A voice called out to him. Where even was he? It was dark, so dark that Iskall could hardly see in front of himself. “Hey.” The voice repeated, this time a bit louder and clearer. It almost sounded like-

“Hallo? Grian? Is that you?” He called out, not even knowing which direction to face.

“Wha- Ew, no.” They might’ve said they’re not Grian, but they certainly did sound like him. Well, mostly like him. It was like if Grian talked like how a printer printed. It was kinda clunky sounding, if he was completely honest.

“Well, then who are you?”

“That’s not important right now. What is important is that you go to Grumbot and fix him.” Now that voice definitely came from someone else. Whereas the other one sounded like a Grian-brand printer, this one sounded like a non-specific search engine’s translating device. Definitely way more clunky sounding than the other. Robotic, one might say. That one being Iskall.

“Huh? What do you mean fix him? If he’s broken, shouldn’t Mumbo be the one to fix him?”

“Sure, but wouldn’t it be nice if you helped him out? Especially after all that emotional help he gave you yesterday.” The translator replied. “Plus, you might even be able to get some mayoral advice from him.” They did offer a good point there. If he fixed Grumbot, he could use him against Mumbo and Grian in the mayoral race.

“I mean, I guess.” He could hear the two voices snickering. He didn’t understand what was so funny about fixing his friends’ robot, but didn’t want to be the only one not laughing, so he joined in.

***

Iskall shot up, panting heavily and rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes. Oh. He blinked, looking around his bedroom. Just another dream. He looked around, seeing that it was still dark in his base. The one good thing about sleeping in an unfinished base was that he could always tell what time of day it was.

‘That was so weird,’ Iskall thought. So far his dreams had been more memory-like, but this one was so much different. ‘There’s no way I’ll be able to go back to sleep after that.’ He sighed, turning and hopping off the edge of his bed and onto the floor.

Despite the sky still being completely black, except for the few stars twinkling through the clouds, and the threat of mobs coming to attack him, Iskall decided to take a relaxing stroll through the jungle to hopefully clear his mind. While it wasn’t out of character for him to have an odd dream like that anymore, that one just felt… real. It felt like there really were two people in the dark distance talking to him and telling him what to do. He could even still hear the low hum that filled his ears whenever one of them spoke.

He shouldn’t be thinking about it. This was supposed to be a nice, relaxing stroll in the dead of night. There wasn’t too much else to think about, though. Perhaps instead he could just think about the things immediately in front of him. There were jungle trees, more jungle trees, even more jungle trees, a pesky bird, another jungle tree, a random crafting bench, Grian’s hobbit hole, another jungle tree- wait a second.

Iskall had walked so far he’d actually reached Grian’s hobbit hole? That was surprising. He’d actually gotten so caught up in watching the world go by that he’d walked from his Omega Tree all the way to Grian’s starter base. What was even more surprising, though, was seeing two figures moving about through the window. Maybe it’s just some villagers that got loose. But villagers don’t wear red sweaters or have mustaches, do they? Maybe he should take a closer look, afterall, this could very well just be another weird dream of his.

As he approached the window, he made sure to keep quiet, so as not to disturb the scene. He poked his head up just enough to peer inside and- sure enough, they weren’t villagers. It was Mumbo and Grian, seemingly arguing. But why would they be arguing so late at night? It wasn’t uncommon to find them building at this time, but just talking? Never. And why were they in the hobbit hole? Iskall supposed it could just be another Hermit Challenges kind of thing, as that wouldn’t be too out of character for Mumbo to do.

“...ly should talk to him you know.” Iskall pressed closer to the window to he could observe and hear what was going on. Not that he was snooping or anything. No. He was just trying to make sure their argument didn’t escalate into a fight. Yeah, that’s what he was doing. He continued to listen.

“But what if I end up saying too much?” Grian sounded really worried. His voice was crackly and higher than normal, and normal was pretty high, if Iskall was being completely honest.

“I mean, we were worried that I would do that, but even I haven’t given anything away, yet! At least not that I can remember anyway… Point is, you need to talk to him and help convince him it’s just a dream.” ‘Are they talking about me?’ Who else had mentioned anything about their dreams lately, Iskall wondered. Unfortunately he couldn’t wonder for too long before the conversation continued.

“You’re right, but I think I’d rather have you there as well, you know, just in case.” In case of what?

“Grian, you have to get over your fear of him turning on you. I helped you with him, remember? It should be fine! He hasn’t done anything yet now has he?” What Mumbo just said sounded suspiciously familiar, but the swedish man just couldn’t put his finger on it.

“I know, I know. I really should have more trust in him; he is my friend after all. I just don’t want it to turn out like how it did with the other two. It’d be a shame to have to lock him in a closet as well,” Grian joked. He and Mumbo laughed, but it was more out of discomfort than anything else. ‘Who did he lock in a closet?’ If only Grian could’ve seen the anxiety coming off the swede at his joke.

“What in the world are they talking about?” Iskall whispered to himself, still trying to remain unseen. This must just be another dream. That’s it. Just another one of those stupid dreams trying to make him mad. He wasn’t gonna fall for it again.

During Iskall’s internal argument, he, like a complete noob, failed to notice that a creeper had snuck up behind him. It flashed brightly just before exploding beside him, and then-

He suddenly woke up again. Wouldn’t be the first time that night. He wanted to just go back to sleep and try to forget about everything, until he remembered that he was right outside the window where Grian and Mumbo were when the creeper blew up. Iskall pulled the pillow over his face, not wanting to have to deal with them right now.

His communicator pinged. Of course it did. What if he just didn’t answer and pretended to be asleep? Knowing them, they’d probably just come to him instead. Ugh. He picked up his communicator.

<MumboJumbo: :O>

<MumboJumbo: you good?>

Iskall groaned. He really did appreciate his friends’ concern, but his cover was blown, literally, and now he’d have to explain why he was spying on them.

fine. thanks.

<MumboJumbo: do you want us to come bring your stuff?>

<iskall85: sure. im at my IBBB.>

***

BOOM! Both Mumbo and Grian turned to look at the gaping hole where a window once was. How in the world could a creeper have blown up? Then they both got a ping on their communicators letting them know that Iskall had been blown up.

“Was he… spying on us?” Grian asked, showing a little more worry than he would have liked.

“Huh.” Was all Mumbo had to say in return. The whole scene had completely caught him off guard. “I… guess so? I mean, he had to have been here. How else could a creeper have blown up and left all this junk lying around?” He motioned his hands around the random assortment of items sitting on the ground in front of them.

They messaged their swedish friend, making sure he was alright and offering to bring him his items, to which they got replies that seemed a lot less energetic than the usual Iskall. He was probably just ticked off about getting blown up, which was completely understandable, so they didn’t take it too personally.

It didn’t take long for Mumbo to gather up all of Iskall’s items into a shulker box and start heading over to his Omega Tree. Along the way, he noticed his shorter friend seeming more and more anxious.

“You alright, mate?” Mumbo asked as they gently glided towards Iskall’s base, genuinely concerned. He knew Grian had mentioned earlier that he was worried about Iskall turning on him, but surely he didn’t really think he would.

“Huh?” The man in question responded, almost too caught up in his own thoughts to notice Mumbo talking to him. “Oh. Yeah, I’m fine. I was just trying to think of why Iskall might’ve been spying on us. Do you think he’s figured it out?” They’d finally reached Iskall’s base, but landed on top before diving in, so they could finish their conversation.

“Even if he did, it’ll be okay, Gri. We’re all friends here, and I’m sure he’d take it well if we did come clean.” Mumbo patted Grian on the back reassuringly. “Now let’s go down there and have a chat, shall we?”

Grian smiled and jumped off the inner edge of the trunk. “Race you down!” He yelled. Mumbo chuckled, knowing that Grian would win anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

Immediately after landing in the middle of the mega base, Mumbo walked toward where he thought he remembered Iskall’s bedroom being. Grian followed behind at a bit of a distance. He wanted to take a second to admire his surroundings. It was the first time Grian had actually been inside the base, and, although it was hard to see in the dark of the night, he was quite impressed with the swede’s interior decorating abilities.

“Grian!” Mumbo whispered-yelled, trying to get the blonde to keep following him. Finally, they found Iskall’s bedroom hidden inside of one of the massive roots. They walked quietly, so as not to disturb the man, in case he was sleeping. Despite his efforts to not wake his sleeping friend, Mumbo misstepped and caused one of the floorboards to creak loudly. If Iskall was even asleep before, he most certainly wasn’t anymore, which was made obvious by his groan. “Ah, sorry to wake you,” Mumbo apologised.

Iskall sat up on the edge of his bed. “Don’t worry about it; I haven’t really been able to sleep lately anyway.” He scratched the back of his head and yawned.

“Right...” Mumbo felt kind of bad for his friend. Working on building all day and then not being able to sleep at night sounded like the worst combination imaginable for any of the hermits. “Well, here’s your stuff back.” He placed down the shulker box full of Iskall’s missing items.

Iskall eyed the shulker box, figuring he could just take his stuff out of it in the morning when he needed it. “Thanks, dude...s.” He finally noticed that Grian had also come by to drop off his stuff.

“No problem, mate. By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, why were you at Grian’s hobbit hole?” Mumbo tilted his head. Iskall panicked internally, searching for a good excuse as to why he was spying on his friends.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I took a walk and ended up there.” Was it still lying even if it was just by omission? He was telling the truth, just not the whole thing.

“That’s quite a long walk!” Mumbo exclaimed, and Iskall gave a little laugh in agreement. He then turned to Grian, who hadn’t spoken the whole time.

“Uh, sorry I made that creeper blow up your base. I can help you rebuild it if you want.” Iskall offered, but Grian just shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it. It was just my starter base, it’s not that big a deal.” There was a long, slightly uncomfortable pause. Iskall really just wanted to go back to bed and sleep everything off, but both Mumbo and Grian seemed like they had something else to say that they just weren’t saying.

“I wasn’t spying on you guys, by the way,” Iskall lied. “I was so close because I thought some of your villagers got loose, and I wanted to check to make sure, but then the creeper blew up.” Even though the first part was the real lie, that part didn’t sound any more truthful. The other two laughed at his excuse.

“Of course you did,” Mumbo laughed between his words. “I mean you’re the one who thought I was some kind of new animal at the start of this world.” Iskall eased up and let himself laugh at the memory. It was all kinda silly.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that.” He sighed then smiled. It was nice to think of a fond memory for once, instead of those horrible dreams. “Actually, uhm, while you guys are here, do you think I could talk to you about something?”

“Of course!”

“Any time!”

Iskall was honestly surprised at how quickly they’d both responded, but also not at the same time. He took a deep breath in, held it for a good minute, then sighed out all of the air he was holding. Now or never, he supposed.

“Do you guys remember the dreams I told you about before?”

“The ones about you dying and us building a robot version of you?” Grian asked. The swede was surprised at how accurately he remembered their previous conversation.

“Err… right. Well, I keep having them, and I just… I don’t know what to do about it. I can’t sleep at night, dudes!” Of course Iskall intentionally left out his most recent dream with the two shadow people telling him to fix Grumbot. He didn’t want to worry them about that, at least not yet.

“Yeah, that does sound like a bit of a problem, doesn’t it?” Mambo said, scratching his chin. Grian hummed in agreement.

“Have you tried sleeping during the day instead?” The shortest of the three asked. Iskall supposed it was reasonable to think sleeping during the day would make a difference, but in reality, he didn’t think the time of day was the problem.

“Well, no, but I don’t think that’s the problem. I kinda feel like maybe there’s something I don’t know about.” Just like last time, both of the british boys had an unreadable expression.

“What? Like good sleeping methods? I’m sure Bdubs could help you out with that.” Mumbo joked. Iskall shot him a stern look.

“You know what I mean, Bumbo! I mean, maybe it’s just the dreams making me think this, but I’m really starting to feel like there’s something you two aren’t telling me.” He wasn’t mad about Mumbo’s joke, although he probably sounded like he was.

Grian quickly looks to Mumbo, having a silent conversation with him. It only gave Iskall an even worse feeling about them hiding something. “Iskall,” the blonde started, placing a reassuring hand on Iskall’s shoulder. “Like we said before, it could just be you worrying about being less human because of your eye and your arm.” He gestured to each mentioned body part as he listed it. “But as your two best friends, just know that we don’t think of you any differently for it.” He smiled.

“Not to say you’re better than me in any way, but honestly, I think they make you way cooler, dude.” Mumbo smiled as well.

“Thanks, but I just kind of feel like there’s something more, you know? Those dreams really tried to put across that I’m completely robot, and I know it’s just a dream but-” Mumbo cut off Iskall’s worried rambling.

“You are human, Iskall. You always have been, and I guess I can’t guarantee that you always will be, but I can say that we’ll never see you as anything less.” Mumbo joined Grian in placing a reassuring hand on the man’s shoulder. “I’m sorry you’re having these dreams, dude, but if there’s anything we can do to help you, we’ll always be right here.”

“Just…” Iskall looked up to meet Mumbo’s gaze then looked back down to Grian. “Just promise me you wouldn’t lie to me like that? I don’t know what I would do if I found out my dreams were true…” Iskall closed his eyes, lack of sleep finally starting to catch up to him.

Grian looked up to Mumbo, who shared the same worried expression. “Of course.” Grian said.

***

As the sun began to gracefully make its descent on the horizon, Iskall perched himself upon the highest branch of his Omega Tree. The view was absolutely gorgeous. It was quite calming to watch the day fade into night and see all the different colours the sky could be. It was almost perfect. Almost.

Iskall’s communicator pinged with a message from Stress.

<Stressmonster101: Hey Iskall, I need some mayoral help!>

<Stressmonster101: We’re pretty low on the popularity poll right now :(>

He’d almost forgotten that he was supposed to be her campaign manager. Maybe now would be a good time to go see Grumbot, like those things from his dream suggested. Not that he thought any of it was real, but in the event that it was real, he’d be prepared.

Iskall took one last look at the pretty picture in front of him before standing up and gliding down to his nether portal and heading for the shopping district. The journey was a lot quicker than he’d expected, but that could just be because he had a mission to complete.

Finally, Iskall arrived at the giant robot off the coast of the shopping district that, for who knows what reason, held two decently sized diamond piles. He walked up closer to the torso of the robot to see how to ask it a question, only to find out that he had to pay the thing. ‘Why on earth would they pay the robot they made?’ Iskall wondered, although it was a robot built by Mumbo and Grian, so he should’ve guessed they’d do something like that.

He placed down his ender chest and retrieved a diamond to test if Grumbot actually worked. After renaming the diamond a simple “Hello,” he put it into the dropper and pressed all the necessary buttons, laughing at how stupid the steps were. The swede stepped back to watch the action happen, seeing the giant, glowing mustache move back and forth before a piece of paper was spit out from its chest. Iskall quickly ran over to the paper, picked it up, and read out the little “HELLO.” written upon it. He was excited to see that it responded to him.

‘Stupid dream dudes. He’s not even broken!’ He thought. Of course he knew it would work! Why would he believe what some dudes from his dream told him?

Having enough evidence that Grumbot does, in fact, work, Iskall renamed another diamond, basically telling Grumbot to give him an idea to help with Stress’s campaign. Once again he primed Grumbot, bootloaded the brain, flooded the mayoral reservoirs, and deposited his “question diamond.” He stepped back a bit to watch as the giant robot did its thing.

Instead of being met with the usual mustache motions, Grumbot seemed to be angry about Iskall’s “question.” Iskall frowned, hoping its expression didn’t mean anything. He picked up the paper Grumbot had dispensed and read it aloud. “YOU ARE NOT MY DADS.” He laughed at the absurdity of the response. What did it mean by “dads”? He tried again to get the robot to give him mayoral advice.

Yet again, Iskall was met with an angry mustachioed robot and a response to match. “”GRUMBOT IS A LOYAL AI.” Huh? I guess it knows I’m not supposed to ask it for advice…” He said aloud. Maybe the guys from his dream were right; maybe Grumbot was broken.

He tried a couple more times to get some kind of response out of it, but was only met with angry eyes and “MUMBO FOR MAYOR.” Perhaps he should take a look at its wiring to see what might be causing this problem. Iskall flew up to Grumbot’s head and broke into it. “Ah, yep,” he said. “I see what the problem is here.”

***

“Aaaaand… done! That’s much better.” Iskall stepped out of Grumbot’s head, replacing the wall as he did so, and took a step back to admire his handiwork. “Hmm… something’s missing… I know!”

One final step back showed the “improvements” made Iskall had made to Grumbot. The mayoral advice robot now donned pink coding scrolling down its face in the shape of a heart rather than the original green code. “Gorgeous.” Iskall stated, admiring his handiwork. Now all that was left to do was to test it out to see if it would actually give him mayoral advice this time.

“Give me a genius idea of doom.” He said aloud as he took the steps to receive answers from the giant robot. He stepped back to see if its expression changed when it processed his request, only to find a saddened robot and a slip of paper that read “SUPPORT MUMBO FOR MAYOR.” Iskall honestly felt kind of bad after seeing how Grumbot’s expression changed, but that feeling quickly dissolved as his determination to help out Stress’s campaign took charge.

He tried again. “Give me a GORGEOUS idea.” He demanded, but only got another sad expression with a piece of paper asking Iskall to wear a mustache to show support. It was actually starting to get annoying how “loyal” the dumb robot was. Perhaps there was something else he could do to help the situation…

“Maybe you’re just not gorgeous enough. You’re not picking up enough gorgeous signals. That’s it.” He said to the robot as he flew all the way up to the very top of its head. The swede took out some pink wool and got to work on making sure Grumbot would give him answers.

“Done.” Grumbot’s antenna was now pink rather than red. It was time for one final try now that all the alterations had been completed. “Give me a GORGEOUS idea.” He restated his previous demand as he pressed the buttons and loaded the final diamond into the dropper.

The final slip of paper was dispensed. “Get Gorgeous” was all it said, and Grumbot, although making the same sad expression as it was earlier, somehow seemed even more heartbroken for being forced to be disloyal to its dads.

Iskall wasn’t completely satisfied with the result, but at least it could possibly sway Mumbo’s and Grian’s votes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra special thanks to illusory0 for helping me out with this chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

“Why weren’t you loyal? Why did you hurt me?” A robotic voice repeated those same two questions over and over again. Iskall sat on Grumbot’s platform, hunched over and covering his ears, trying his hardest to block out all sound. He looked up to see the face of the robot, only to be met with the same sad expression and glowing water flowing down its face and into the ocean surrounding the platform. There was smoke coming out of its head in thick clouds.

“Why weren’t you loyal? Why did you hurt me?” The man’s attempts to block out the noise were failing.

“I- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you!” He yelled, hoping the robot might hear.

“You did this.” At least it wasn’t repeating the same two sentences anymore. “You made us disloyal.”

“Disloyal? To who?!” Iskall yelled, but Grumbot didn’t appear to hear him. Its head began to turn, causing the whole platform to shake. “Who, Grumbot?!” He tried again.

Once the head had done a full 360 and was once again facing Iskall, he could see the expression had changed. It was now angry and the sea lanterns that made up its facial features were now glowing a furious shade of red and the water stopped falling. “You know who.” The robot’s tone of voice never changed, but boy oh boy did it sting.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about!” He was genuinely confused. “Is it the shadow dudes from my dream? Why would we be loyal to them?” 

“Our-”

Blankets were thrown on the floor. Sweat was pouring off his body. Iskall tossed and turned, trying his hardest to keep sleeping, but that task was proving incredibly difficult considering the dream he was having. He shot up, sitting up with his back against the headboard, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Just another dream.

If any of the previous ones gave him psychological issues, then this dream was a whole nother story. What did Grumbot mean he was disloyal? And “our” what? What in the world could he and Grumbot possibly have in common that he was “disloyal” to? Iskall really needed to take another long walk or continue working on his base to get this one off his mind.

The swede grabbed as many shulker boxes of oak wood as he could carry and flew gracefully up to the unfinished top of his tree. He placed down all of the boxes at the base of where the new branch would go then went to town placing down wood in the shape of a giant branch, humming as he did so. 

It’d been hours since he’d started working on the new addition to his base and he didn’t even realise it. He’d been so caught up in making the new branch that he’d actually managed to not think about any of his recent dreams. In fact, the only reason Iskall had stopped working was because he suddenly couldn’t see what he was doing, seeing as how the sun had just finished setting completely. 

“Oh wow.” He said, stepping back to look at his progress. The branch was nearly complete already; the only thing left to do was add some even smaller branches coming off of it. “Nice.” He smiled at his hard work then looked up to the sky and his mood immediately dropped. 

Most of the hermits would agree that nighttime wasn’t anything special. Sure hostile mobs were annoying to deal with, but they were, for the most part, pretty manageable. Recently though, Iskall grew to really despise this time of day. Night only meant that he would start to grow tired and eventually fall asleep, and falling asleep meant having those stupid, awful dreams. He truly wished there was a way for a human to be able to survive without sleeping, if only because he didn’t want to develop any more trust issues.

Iskall stretched his sore muscles and yawned into his hand. He really, really did not want to go to sleep, especially after last night’s dream. He shivered at the thought of it. It’d almost made him feel bad for what he did to Grumbot, but it had to be done because otherwise it would’ve just been sitting there, broken and confused about who the right mayoral candidate was.

For a quick second, Iskall had considered just giving in to his humanly needs and just deal with whatever stupid dream his brainhead would decide to throw away, but he had a better idea. Although he was certainly tired after all the work he’d gotten done over the course of the day, going to sleep was not going to be an option, instead, he’d stay awake and head over to his starter base and probably rummage through the chests or repaint his nails. The latter sounded like the better plan. The swede looked down at his fingernails, and, sure enough, most of the paint had already chipped off. It wasn’t super surprising, considering he worked with hard materials, but it did give him an excuse to not sleep.

After picking up all of the empty shulker boxes, Iskall gently glided down to his shulker box storage area and placed them down randomly. He then put away the rest of the junk he happened to be carrying before launching himself directly upward from the middle of his base. 

Even though his starter base wasn’t that far from his current base, it still felt like it took quite a while to get there. Just as the vertical hobbit hole came into view, Iskall had heard a ripping sound. He turned his head to see that his elytra had broken mid-flight, causing him to plummet into the sand from quite a ways up. The crash made everything go black.

***

“Welcome back, Iskall.” The swede sat up, rubbing his eyes. That voice sounded familiar for some reason. “You did a good job “fixing” the robot.” Wait a minute. He knew that clunky voice. He opened his eyes, and, to his surprise, this time he had a face to match the voice.

The translator-sounding voice that greeted him donned metallic skin with a permanent frown. They wore a red sweater, not unlike Grian’s, with grey-ish jeans and sneakers. They almost looked like if Grian were a robot. It was kind of uncanny.

“... uhm… thanks?” He responded after getting a good look at who he was talking to. Iskall really didn’t know how to feel about the whole Grumbot thing, really, but he’d take the compliment nonetheless. “Who are you, again?” He asked.

“Hm? Our creator never told you about us?” Our? Iskall tilted his head. “That’s actually not that surprising. I’m Robot Grian.” They held out their hand for Iskall to shake, which he instead took as an offer to help him stand up. 

“What do you mean our creator? Are you religious or something?” The robot in front of him placed their hand to their face. Iskall was sure that if they could sigh, they most certainly would have been doing that right now.

“No. Remember what you saw in your dreams? Does that give you any clues?” 

“Uh…” He had to really think about who they could’ve meant by “our creator,” but so much had happened in his dreams lately. Then it struck him. “Mumbo and Grian?”

“More specifically the latter, but yes.” They sounded annoyed, even though their voice was rather monotonous.

“I don’t know why you sound so annoyed when you could’ve just said Grian.” Iskall huffed.

“I could have, but we don’t like to use that name around here.” They crossed their arms over their chest.

“But- You- That’s literally a part of your name!” 

“Yeah, well, that’s different. Anyway, come out here NPG.” Suddenly, a smaller robot donning the exact same outfit as Robot Grian came out of nowhere. 

“Hello. My name is NPC Grian, and I like rustic houses.” That was the one that sounded like if Grian tried to read a script. Iskall quickly took notice that its eyes appeared to glow red.

“Uh, that’s nice, I guess?” He really didn’t know what to say. “So you are both named after Grian?”

“He’s self-centered, what do you expect?”

“I-” He thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right.” Now that he was thinking about it, and knew about two more robots Grian has built, every one of them had, or at least part of, his name. He must really suck at coming up with cool names, unlike Iskall. “But anyway, what do you mean our creator? Grian may have built you guys, but I’m a human. Besides, Mumbo’s the one that built me this arm; I think Grian was just there for moral support or something. Have you ever seen him try to do redstone?” Immediately after saying that, Iskall realised that two of his attempts were standing right in front of him. “Uh, no offense,” he said softly.

“None taken.” The smaller robot smiled.

“Iskall, have you not paid any attention to your “dreams”? Those are real events that happened. You died and he helped Mumbo rebuild your body. Like us, you are one of his creations.” 

“What? No way, those were just dreams. The only thing real about them is Mumbo fixing my arm and me waking up on his beach.” The grey robot put a hand on his shoulder.

“They’re lying to you. They always have been. We accessed your memories and played them to you while you slept. It did happen, and you are a robot.” Suddenly, Iskall really began to question everything he knew. He’d had suspicions that those two had been hiding something from him, but they definitely wouldn’t hide something that important from him! Would they? 

The more he thought about it, the more he recalled their worried expressions whenever he questioned them about his arm and his eye. It was all getting to be too much for him to handle. Some tears may or may not have spilled from his ducts just from the sheer stress he was feeling.

“It’s okay, Iskall. We’ll treat you better than that. We’re your brothers after all.” NPC Grian said. They did seem to be more trustworthy than his so-called friends. On one hand, he did just meet them, so he couldn’t really judge whether or not they were trustworthy enough, but on the other hand, Mumbo and Grian did betray him, in a way. 

The swede met the unblinking eyes of the other two. “Okay. I trust you.” His face was tear-stained but determined.

“Good. Now, we have a favour to ask of you. Do you think you can do it?” Robot Grian asked, monotonous yet, somehow, determined-sounding.

***

Iskall awoke to sand in his mouth and the feeling of a stick poking his back. “Are you dead?” He heard the familiar canadian voice ask him. He turned over and sat up, spitting the grainy substance out and rubbing the back of his head.

“Not yet. What are you doing here this early in the morning, Etho?” He turned his gaze up to the man in question.

“I just came by to- actually, you’ll figure it out later.” The canadian giggled to himself. Knowing Etho, he probably pulled some kind of prank. “More importantly, why were you sleeping outside in the desert? I’m sure you have at least one bed somewhere around here.” He cocked his head, showing his concern for the swede’s mental stability.

“I was going to my starter base, but my elytra broke, and next thing I know, it’s early in the morning and you’re poking me with a stick, asking me if I’m dead.” He explained. He honestly expected his explanation to be way more long-winded than it was.

“Uh-huh. I see.” Etho scratched his chin in fake concentration. “You’re okay, though, right?” 

“I think so,” Iskall laughed, turning around and checking himself out to make sure, brushing the sand off as he did so.

“Good. You wanna come grab a snack with me? I was headed to the shopping district anyway if you wanted to tag along.” The taller man offered, to which Iskall happily accepted. It would be nice to hang out, for once, with someone who didn’t lie to his face.


	8. Chapter 8

Grian stood in front of his giant mansion, thinking about what to do with it next. The roof still needed stringing, but he didn’t really want to do that right now. He then turned around and looked up to his little Nether portal that sat atop the tallest tree nearby. Perhaps he could make an actual portal, but where to put it was the question. Just as he turned to look back at his base to try and figure out where in the world to put it, he just barely saw something out of the corner of his eye. He shrugged it off as ‘probably just a leaf that got blown by the wind.’

Perhaps he should just work on detailing the back of his mansion. Or maybe not. It wasn’t like a lot of people were going to see it anyway, plus, he just really, really didn’t want to do it. ‘Instead,’ he thought, ‘I’ll just blow a giant hole in front of the base.’ If there was a phrase that was any more Grian-sounding than that, he had no clue. Grian nodded to himself, silently agreeing that he should definitely do that instead of working on something he already had the resources for.

In order to actually blow up an enormous hole in his front yard, though, he’d need an absolutely ridiculous amount of TNT. After checking in a couple of his scattered chests and shulker boxes, he’d found exactly three pieces of the explosive. He figured it’d probably be a good idea to gather up some resources anyway since the barge could use some stocking of items.

Grian hummed as he travelled the long distance through the Nether to the mining desert. He was honestly quite surprised to find that the desert still had any sand left in it, especially considering his fellow hermits’ love for concrete as well as the Boomers’ seemingly excessive use of TNT. Nevertheless, the blonde man immediately got down to business setting down the five empty shulker boxes he intended to fill to the brim with sand. This was going to take a while, but at least he had some music to listen to while he shovelled away.

Dune after dune, he completely demolished the remainder of the desert. The man’s poor little shovel could hardly take any more shovelling, even though he had hardly gotten started. After getting the last little bit of sand his diamond shovel could handle, Grian began to walk back toward his shulker boxes to replace his damaged shovel.

“There we go!” He exclaimed, taking a brand new diamond shovel out of his enderchest. “Now we can get back to work.” Just as Grian was about to head back to dune-demolishing, he heard something. It sounded like a stick- or perhaps a dead bush?- being snapped beneath someone’s feet. He turned around to face the direction from which the sound came, but there was just empty desert. He tilted his head in concern.

‘Maybe it’s just the wind again,’ the man tried to reason with himself, but he hadn’t even felt the slightest of breezes all day. Not wanting to dwell on it further, he got back to work gathering up sand to fill up the rest of his empty shulker boxes.

When he was almost done, Grian saw something green, but just barely. In fact, he wouldn’t have thought anything of it, had the colour not been so bright. He supposed it could’ve just been a cactus, but there wasn’t any sand left for cactuses to grow on. These little things he kept seeing were starting to worry him a little. Maybe he should just go ahead and go to his and Scar’s gunpowder farm to finish up his TNT-making adventure.

***

Grian couldn’t shake the feeling he was being followed- the thought had been lingering in the back of his mind all day. Whenever he’d turn around, though, there was nothing. Not a single soul nor entity. It was really weird and annoying; he wished the feeling would just go away.

The blonde man had stood, hopefully alone, at the gunpowder farm for about two hours now. He tried his hardest not to think about all the weird things he’d been seeing as he did so. He just needed a few more stacks of the stuff in order to make as much TNT as he planned on using. When that last little bit finally trickled into the chest, he dropped all of it, as well as a matching amount of sand, on the stone floor and began crafting.

“All that work for just nine stacks of TNT? Ugh, this is ridiculous.” He said to no one in particular. Although he might’ve seemed annoyed at how much work it took, he was actually quite pleased with how much he’d managed to make. “Hmm…” he hummed to himself. “I was gonna sell some at the barge as well, but I guess that’ll have to wait for another time.”

Grian floated up the bubble elevator and immediately took off toward his portal upon reaching the surface. He figured he’d go and stock the sand first and then have fun with his newly-made TNT, just in case he accidentally killed himself in the explosion and lost an entire night’s worth of work.

When he walked out of the portal to the shopping district, he came out at a different place. “So it’s finally been moved to Town Hall?” He mumbled to himself. From where he came out, he could see his own shop. That was definitely good for business. More people seeing his shop would mean more customers, which meant more diamonds for him. He smirked at the thought.

The brit happily walked along the short path from the portal to his barge, but failed to notice someone walking out at the same time he was walking in. He crashed into someone, causing them to drop whatever it was that they were holding.

“Oh, hey, Iskall! Sorry, didn’t see you there.” Grian greeted, but the other man didn’t seem too happy. “Do you need help picking those up?” He offered, but Iskall just groaned, causing Grian to throw his hands up in defence.

“Whatever.” Iskall said, really living up to his name with the tone of voice he used.

“Are you okay, dude?” The blonde asked, then remembered their conversation the previous night. He looked around to make sure nobody was around to hear what he was about to say, then he spoke softer than before. “Is it the dreams again?” Grian really felt bad for his friend. He couldn’t imagine having dreams like that every single night.

Just before walking off, and without turning around, Iskall replied in a, somehow, even colder tone. “That’s none of your business.” Grian didn’t want to agitate the man further, so he just watched as he walked off and met up with Etho in front of the Town Hall. Had he done something wrong?

He decided not to dwell on it further. If Iskall was in a bad mood, then he’d just let it be his own problem, since the swede, apparently, didn’t want to talk to him. Grian sighed as he stocked the sand. He really did want to know why one of his best friends seemed so angry with him over seemingly nothing.

***

Grian tossed and turned under his covers. He just wanted to get some sleep after pulling an all-nighter to finish terraforming in the brand new hole in his front yard, but he just… couldn’t. He shut his eyes tighter in the hopes that might help him drift off easier, but to his disappointment, it didn’t. Now he knew, at least somewhat, how Iskall must have felt.

His body’s fight to keep him awake won the battle, so Grian sat up begrudgingly, looking at the star-dotted sky. He’d have liked to have been asleep hours ago, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen, so maybe a little stroll around his massive base would be nice. Just as he was about to get up off his bed, the brit noticed a shadow moving about the floor of his hobbit hole bedroom. It could’ve just been nothing, but after all the things he thought he saw today, it was definitely something.

Quickly equipping his armour, Grian stood up and snuck toward the entrance to his room. It was nearly impossible not to make a sound with floors made of creaky wooden planks, but he, somehow, managed. With his back against the wall next to the door, he stilled, halting his own breathing to check for any sounds. After a good thirty seconds, he decided it really was nothing.

Grian finally turned the corner to leave his room, when he bumped into something. Upon inspection, it appeared to be someone. He looked up to see their face. Iskall?

“Oh, uh, hey, Iskall.” Grian greeted nervously. Their encounter at the barge earlier plus all the things he thought he saw throughout the past day really had him on edge. “Did you need something? Or?”

Iskall said nothing. He had a blank look on his face. He almost looked like he was being controlled by a remote of some sort, but that wasn’t possible in the slightest. The swedish man breathed in and held his right hand out further from his body like he was about to equip something. And he did.

Before Grian could even react, something cold and sharp had pierced through him. He looked into the eyes of his friend for a brief moment, trying to figure out why he would do such a thing, but that moment was gone all too soon.

<Grian was slain by iskall85 using Iskallibur>


End file.
